Jesus died to take down the walls the divide us. For the 4th Sunday of Easter we celebrate the way that God’s circle of inclusion keeps expanding. All of the words that we’ll be using for worship are below. Or, you can download a copy to print here.

PRELUDE                                                                                          Seek Ye First

GREETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

CALL TO WORSHIP – Isaiah 56

Thus says the Lord:
   Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come,
   and my deliverance be revealed.
Happy is the mortal who does this,
   the one who holds it fast,
who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it,
   and refrains from doing any evil.
Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
   ‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people’;
and do not let the eunuch say,
   ‘I am just a dry tree.’
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
   who choose the things that please me
   and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
   a monument and a name
   better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
   that shall not be cut off.
And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
   to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
   and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath,

and do not profane it,
   and hold fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
   and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
   for all peoples.

*HYMN #790                                                                          Baptized In Water

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Most High and holy God, the waves of the sea turn the highest cliffs into grains of sand, let the waters of our baptism continue to erode the walls within and around us. Remove from our hearts the walls that prevent your transformation from taking hold; walls of regret, of pain, of worry. Dismantle in our minds the walls that keep us divided from one another; walls of prejudice, of mistrust, of bias. Bless us each with your Holy Spirit to raise us above the sin of this world so that we might all share in the life that is eternal. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

HYMN #838                                                                    Now Behold the Lamb

please remain seated

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

In Christ, you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh

When we were buried with him in baptism, we were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses…God made you alive together with Christ, when he forgave us all our trespasses.

ANTHEM                                                                                       Saviour Reigns

SCRIPTURE                                                                                        Acts 8:26-39

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
   and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
     so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
   Who can describe his generation?
     For his life is taken away from the earth.’
The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

SERMON                                                

*HYMN #800                                                   What the Lord Has Done In Me

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION & THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.

OFFERTORY                                               All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises

*BENEDICTION

*SENDING SONG #931                                               We Will Walk With God